Since when Did the Beast Become the Beauty..? The great Enigma of Trellick Tower, London
Posted: Thursday, June 04, 2009
by Connor Davidson
I am sure that you are all familiar with the Disney film Beauty and the Beast. Well, London seems to have the two round the wrong way. Trellick Tower includes the world's most expensive council houses and is officially a grade II listed building- just like many grand Victorian mansions. But to all the non "arty farties" and the "conceptual art crew" it's a huge slap of prefabricated concrete that is crying out for the wrecking ball.
" Love it or loath it, Trellick Tower is a masterpiece of a vision. Goldfinger tweaked his designs from previous projects to improve Trellick over them. He had a vision of what people wanted in homes, trying to provide everything from shopping to open spaces. He did this with striking buildings that incorporated innovative features to improve the lives of the residents and the running of the building. " Craig
" it symbolises triumph over adversity in social housing " Thomas Cooper
Yet I still fail to see what is so good about it. It has a short bit of moderately interesting history but by no means is it aesthetic it is a building built for raw functionality and is not supposed to look good. It is simply a big black mark on the townscape.
Oh and the best bit is Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond) agrees with me. You have probably seen the film Goldfinger. Well then you will know that the main villain was Erno Goldfinger - the architect of Trellick Tower. Fitting don't you think?
But still people want to live there and are prepared to pay large sums of money to do so. At one time it was full of crime and tenants would be frantically resisting a move to the Tower which, in many respects was a vertical slum or as good old Goldfinger puts it "city in the sky". These days are gone now: according to Wikipedia (don't you dare go and change it) private properties inside the tower now sell for between 250,000 ( 406, 925 U.S. dollars ) for a one-bedroom flat to 465,000( 756,880.50 U.S. dollars ) for three-bedrooms. Here is a comparison of where you could live for the same price and the part of tower you blew your life savings on.
Apart form being generally ugly Trellick Tower is effectively an over sized phone box - it attracts tourists and looks stupid at the same time.
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Top-level comments on this article: (8 total)Very interesting and informative article. Thanks for sharing.Thanks for the comment.
What an interesting article, Connor. It's always fun to have a "tour" of something from a resident authority, so to speak. What a price tag to live there!Great article. Well done.
I would have never guessed that an article on an "architectural form of brutalism" could be so entertaining!I'm glad you think that because some of the articles I read researching this were anything but entertaining.Thanks for the comment.
Hi Connor, thank you for this interesting bit of history. I like the added picture which helps in your explanation.Well done.TeresaI do too...Thanks for the comment.
Educational - the bit about Ian Flemming. Couple of syntax errors, but no big worry. The only thing is relevance... this will only appeal to people who know about the Trellick Tower... From appearance alone, it is by no means unique.Thanks for the comment.
Just from the picture, it seems you have described it quite well. It does look a bit like a giant phone booth. I like the cottage much better.SandraI agree council houses look bad, but at least you can see them from every spot in the capital - just most.Thanks for the comment.
Hi Connor.Thank you for writing this article. When in London, i will try to visit this place. Why is it called Trellick Tower not Goldfinger Tower? Good write.Best regards,NenitaThanks for the comment.
I learned something today! I hadn't heard of the tower before, so this was very interesting to me.Thanks for the comment.
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